


soft hands, linked

by TheTartWitch



Series: Steampunk Roses (Harry Potter Style) [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Depression, M/M, POV Ron Weasley, Viktor is a good boy, and for percy too, i just wanted something soft for ron after dragging him through the gates of pain, pettigrew is very traumatizing for ron, ron is very sad at first, trigger warnings for suspected homophobia, two kids in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25738153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: ron + viktor = soft feelings
Relationships: Fred Weasley/George Weasley/Lee Jordan/Cedric Diggory, Viktor Krum/Ron Weasley
Series: Steampunk Roses (Harry Potter Style) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/834198
Comments: 18
Kudos: 221





	soft hands, linked

**Author's Note:**

> Ron is depressed in this. He has a lot of parallels to me while I was writing this (a year/two years ago) and I wanted something soft for him.  
> Please let me know if there's a warning I should put in the tags or just something I should add up there.
> 
> Translation to Russian here: https://ficbook.net/readfic/9870627  
> If anybody knows how I can make that a link by itself or put a link in the notes somewhere somehow, please let me know! :)

He doesn’t know if he’s capable of trusting animals again. Three years of a grown man sleeping in his bed, watching him change, bathe, sleep, and he had no idea. How many years before that was Pettigrew watching Percy? Percy looks pale all the time now, sticks close to Potter and his group whenever they’re nearby, allows Mr. Malfoy to squeeze his shoulder in a comforting gesture that Percy’s own mother regrets not making. And that’s another thing: Molly regrets being so awful to Percy, but she won’t take back what she’s said, doesn’t even seem to have considered it, and that scares Ron because he’s learned a few things about himself and right now she’s the only adult support he’s got, it feels like. 

Potter gave him a beast to help him feel better about everything that’s happened, and maybe he leans on Prim too much, asks her to take too much of his fear and anger and worry and pain unto herself, but it’s a relief to know that she’s safe, that he’s safe with her. She can’t be fooling him, and she won’t let anyone else fool him like that again. That’s the only way he’s able to get himself to sleep anymore.

\--

When Potter gifted Prim to him, he told Ron that everyone needed someone to talk to, especially after going through something like this, but sometimes you didn’t feel safe telling a stranger your secrets or secure allowing someone you’re close to seeing you all broken up inside. So he’d given Prim a small ability to speak and react to Ron’s words, as well as trigger phrases or actions so she could know when Ron needed space or wasn’t doing well, and could move him to a safer place or stay close to comfort him without being too obvious. 

So when he feels eyes watching him at the Welcoming Feast, as the Headmistress announces the Tournament and explains that the other schools will soon be arriving, he curls his fingers around the tip of Prim’s ear under the table and says softly, “Prim.”

She perks up at the sound of her name, leans into his palm, and grinds from the gears in her throat, “Ron,” and he’s relieved by the groan of his name. Scabbers couldn’t have spoken to him.

\--

He’s in the library the day after they arrive, trawling Transfiguration textbooks for information on animagus transformations with Prim curled around him. The window seat he’s stolen from the fifth years is just warm enough in the autumn sunlight that he can forgo any heating charms or blankets, but he likes the feel of the fabric over his legs as he reads, like it weighs him down to where he is and keeps him from just floating away. 

“Excuse me,” says a tired voice, whispering as though hunted and with a discernable accent, and Ron glances up to stare straight into a face he’s seen so many times before from a magazine’s pages. “May I sit with you?” Viktor Krum asks, glancing around them as though (Ron realizes he probably is) he’s checking for anyone following him.

Ron looks at Prim, who stares back trustingly, and slowly lifts the corner of his blanket. Viktor’s smile is blinding.

\--

They’ve started meeting up in the library daily after Ron discovered that Viktor can’t read very much English fluently, and that’s where they are when the twins find them. 

“Ronniekins,” they sing-song in unison, as they do most things. Their eyes fix on Viktor’s hand on Ron’s, something Ron hadn’t even noticed happening until now. He doesn’t move it, though. It’s warm and Viktor doesn’t seem to mind, if the way he blushes but leaves it there on Ron’s says anything. 

“What is it?” He sighs. They hardly come find him unless they need something. Usually an alibi, one that no one believes but doesn’t bother arguing because there’s never any proof anyway. 

They eye Viktor some more, until he gets the idea being implied and excuses himself to find some Quidditch books for a moment, then they slide into the chairs opposite him at the little table he found (out of the view of the common area because Viktor’s fans would murder him if they saw what the twins just saw). They tap their chins with a finger each and grin at him.

“So Viktor Krum, eh?” They wink in perfect unison. Ron stares at them dully, trying tiredly to figure out what they’re implying. That he’s secretly in a relationship already? That he’s only in the ‘crush’ stage? He blinks at them slowly for a moment, hoping they’ll realize he’s lost, but they just smile expectantly. 

“So Cedric Diggory and Lee Jordan, eh?” He returns finally, looking down at the book in front of him. It’s a muggle faerie tale, where no one lies but figures out ways around the truth anyway.

“Guess you know how it is now, huh,” one of them glances off to where a pair of dark heads are combing the stacks for something. The other leans towards him conspiratorially. He leans back in his chair instinctively, but he still hears it when they whisper (of course in bloody unison), “Viktor’s taking a bit, isn’t he? Learning very much English together?”

The twins puff up and look at each other. “Hanging about with _our_ little brother, is he?”

Ron snorts and packs up his things. “Very funny. Like I have to ask _your_ permission to break Mum’s rules anyway.” Prim prowls out from beneath the table like a last word. 

The twins just watch him go.

\--

Viktor had asked before hugging him, the first time. Now they hug often, or just sit beside each other and touch the backs of their hands together, whispering.

“I hate rats,” he says one time, looking down at their hands together. Viktor’s twitches towards his, and he allows it. Viktor won’t hurt him, not with this. 

“I haf heard,” is what Viktor says in reply, equally quiet and confidential, and he doesn’t ask any questions. Ron’s glad. Ron doesn’t look at his face to see what he’s thinking. Viktor’s usually very stone-faced, but his eyebrows and eyes are very expressive. 

After a while, Viktor tucks his face into Ron’s shoulder and speaks. 

“You know,” he tells Ron’s collarbone, “When I vas little I had little cat. One day while I vas at school, my little cat escaped through ze vindow I’d left open and ze dog next door ate most of eet.” He’s silent for a while. “Now I am terrified of dogs.” 

Ron hums and puts his face in Viktor’s hair thoughtfully. Dogs are pretty scary too, he thinks in agreement.

\--

He goes to every Tournament event. At the ball he dances with Viktor and smiles into the other’s jacket. Viktor smiles too, a little thing meant only for Ron, and by the time they separate he’s back to his usual expressionless mask.

\--

He hugs Viktor the moment he’s brought from the maze, steaming and covered in scratches. When he pulls away, he keeps a grip on the other’s arms and looks down at their hands linked together.

“I really like you,” he tells Viktor quietly, seriously, and the other presses a smile into his hair. “I think, given time, I’d like to like you more.”

“I am feeling the same,” Viktor promises, his voice scratchy too, and they both pretend it’s from yelling in the maze and not the liquid clouding his eyes.

\--

He doesn’t tell Molly. It’s not even because he’s scared of what she’ll think anymore. It’s more because this feeling in his chest is complicated to him and he wants to think about it more. It feels...new. Special. Soft. Sometimes he just closes his eyes and imagines Viktor’s tiny smiles and quirked eyebrows, the way his eyes go smooth and tilt at the corners when he’s happy, and it makes Ron so relaxed he almost drops a plate doing dishes.

He knows Molly’s noticed something’s different. Sometimes he catches her looking at him with something complicated on her face, like she’s both happy and scared, and it makes him sad so he doesn’t ask. Molly’s never been a quiet mum. He’ll know what she’s figured out and what she decides soon enough.

“So,” she starts one evening as they clear the table. “Found a nice girl at school, dear?”

“No,” he smiles. She peers at his face for a moment and he looks at anything else. Finally she looks down into the sink. 

“You know you can tell me if you’ve met someone, Ron?” She whispers. “If there’s someone you like I’d love to meet them.”

He grins. Prim, under the table still, purrs a bit in a grating rumble of happy. 

“His name is Viktor…”

-*-

**Author's Note:**

> For all the readers of my Clockwork Harry Potter series: sorry it took so long to come back.


End file.
